MS-Exchange and Distribution lists (need help/advice)

Factual Questions
1

In a bit of a pickle.

We have a mail list of over 6,000 people we send a newsletter to daily (they all opt in to it…pay for it in fact so not spam).

Our current e-mail provider seems to be having issues lately so I am looking to migrate away from them to someone more reliable.

I am aiming for a MS-Exchange server (either hosted or we may get one depending on cost considerations). However, it seems the MS-Exchange has a very limited distribution list capacity. From what I have read their distribution lists should not exceed 128 users and they recommend even less than that.

With 6,000 e-mails to manage you can see that would be a problem. I have heard you can make a distribution list of distribution lists which would effectively pull them together but list management (adding and removing people) would be a nightmare.

So, I have been on the hunt for some mail list management software that can work with Exchange. Unfortunately everything seems problematical at best. I was looking very closely at PHPList but not sure integration with Exchange works well…particularly in managing bounced e-mails (auto-removing recipients if their mail address bounces the message back).

So, any opinions/ideas? Note one particular need is the ability for the list to forward e-mails. PHPList seems to want you to input the mail into their software and this will not work. We need to send a mail to the list and have that list take the mail and forward it to everyone in the list.

Tall order for here maybe. Hope someone can help!

Thanks in advance!

2

Have you thought about using a service for this? Such as Emma?

3

Yes, looked at Constant Contact.

Frankly Emma’s prices are off the charts. It’d cost us $600/month to send the newsletter. As part of our mail hosting service (currently which we’d do anyway for our own e-mail) we send essentially for free.

Thanks though.

4

I think asking for exchange integration is a bit too much. I managed a 13,000 person list using some very basic mailing software and simply removed people by hand. It was only a few per week, so it wasnt a big deal. Considering how Exchange isnt designed for mass-mailing duties, I wouldnt bother with this feature. Let the software manage the list, not Exchange. You can use Exchange’s SMTP service or the one that comes with the software, but I would use Exchange SMTP as youve probably already have done things like reverse DNS of the mail server IP, etc.

I think buying a groupware product soley for mass mailing is the wrong way to go. Phplist and a linux mail server (smtp + qmail) is all you need. Exchange is popular because of its integration with Outlook and calendaring, not because its a good mass mailing tool.

If you must have exchange you can always export groups into a csv and with a little scripting import csv files into AD, so you can use phplist or whatever as long as you can output a csv youre golden.

5

I dont think this is a popular feature. Generally, forwarding something breaks all the formatting and other details, so the people who craft the email just upload the finished HTML email and the mass mailer previews it (very good) and sends it off as a native HTML email. Adding a middleman in the process is just bad form.

6

Tell me about it but one we are stuck with currently the way my boss puts together his e-mail. I am working to change that but it is a long and difficult process with all he has going on in the e-mail plus making it convenient for him to create every day.

He writes the checks so I need to keep him happy.

7

You want to use a mailing list software application, not a groupware application like Exchange. Software packages like LISTSERV, Majordomo, Sympa, or GNU Mailman would be more appropriate as they are specifically designed to do what you’re attempting.

Be aware that there are some technical headaches that come with managing your own mailing list server such as ensuring you have sufficient Internet bandwidth, making sure you don’t wind up on any RBLs, setting up your system to pass RDNS checks, and other such considerations.

8

If you are hard set on using exchange here is an idea.

  1. Setup exchange server with its own domain. I would not stick it in a production domain.
  2. Import your email list to AD as contacts.
  3. Create an account to email from. Configure it to only allow incoming email from your boss.
  4. Create an account for the reply to address.
  5. Set the email from account for out of office with the option to forward email to all the contacts in outlook. I was able to select over 5500 addresses. Probably close to 15000.
  6. Check the reply to account for undeliverable addresses. Delete them from AD.
  7. Add new addresses to contacts and the auto forward.

6 and 7 should be scriptable. I don’t know how standard undeliverable messages are so this might not be easy. Your boss emails the send from address, and the message is atuo forwarded to everyone.

This is not a perfect solution, but it is the only one I can think of that will allow you to use exchange.

9

You might want to look at a program called PC iMail.